


and tell her that her lonely nights are over

by delinquents



Series: Song Inspired - SKAM Italia [4]
Category: SKAM (Italy)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Inspired by Music, Skam Italy - Freeform, Song Lyrics, Song: Mr Sandman, bed sharing, dream - Freeform, incantava - Freeform, skam italia - Freeform, syml, time jumps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26236375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delinquents/pseuds/delinquents
Summary: He's so used to everyone saying he's in a league of his own, but they've clearly never met Eleonora Sava.fic no.4 of the song series brought to you byMr Sandman Cover by SYML
Relationships: Edoardo Incanti/Eleonora Sava
Series: Song Inspired - SKAM Italia [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901491
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	and tell her that her lonely nights are over

**Author's Note:**

> i'm just dumping out all my drafts in a shitty attempt to clear that tab so I can start new ones... enjoy whatever mess this is :)
> 
> there's less lyrics in here than normal because I just felt like I would be repeating myself a lot with this song, which I hate because this song just fits so well for them but we live with what we have it (will i use this as an excuse to use this song again from Ele's POV? probs :) )
> 
> (there are time jumps in here which I don't really like but... it's kinda sweet? maybe? idk you tell me)

He's so used to everyone saying he's in a league of his own, but they've clearly never met Eleonora Sava.

* * *

_I'm so alone  
_

_Don't have nobody to call my own_

It's exhausting, whatever push and pull game he's developed with Eleonora, especially with her two-thousand miles away in Manchester. Fede makes fun of him for suddenly becoming celibate, but as far as his best friend is concerned poking at Eleonora's buttons was just a fun way of killing the time before she left. It had started that way, right after she'd dragged him through the mud in front of all his friends, but then Eva had given him her name and number and it steadily got much deeper than making Ele's green eyes narrow when he started talking.

He hadn't expected any replies from her after she'd flown out of Italy, especially not after he'd waited a whole month to send the first message. She probably thought he'd only liked messing with her because she was around, that his shameless flirting was just a way of getting a response out of her, and that now that she's gone for six months he's going to go right back to his old ways.

The thing is, he just honestly didn't know what to say. Messing around with her when they're in the same city is one thing, and most of the time when he would text her it was because he could see her reaction in person right as he sent it, or because he'd see her in school the next day and the warning glare she'd give him did something funny to his head that he really liked. Texting her now, countries apart, feels more intimate somehow, because that means she _knows_ he's thinking of her even when she's not around. 

And, _sure_ , he's thinking of her, but she's probably not thinking about him at all. Not with her new friends, her new classes and assignments, her new life in Manchester. She has more things to worry about than the guy back home who treated her friend like crap. 

But the way Eleonora had looked at him that night before she left wasn't the same. She was softer that night, lips quirking into a smile when he suggested the beach, and she didn't step away from him as quickly as she normally did. 

And now she's responding to his messages. 

The first one wasn't that big of a deal - according to Fede at least, and, yeah, Ele responding with a simple 'no' when he asked if their date could be marked in when she gets back isn't exactly _huge_ but he'd been sat in the middle of his history class when it came in and nearly fell out of his seat. Normally the two little checkmarks didn't even turn blue, meaning she hadn't even bothered to open them, but she'd _responded_ this time. 

And Edoardo's always been a victim of getting his hopes up.

"Edoardo, either text the girl or stop moping. You're not allowed to mope in my house, it's forbidden."

"Nonna-"

"Text or stop moping."

He stares almost panicked at the pathetic excuse of a message he'd typed out before sucking in a breath and hitting send - and then blinks dumbly at the two check marks that pop up a dark grey.

"It sent," He frowns.

"And why do you sound so upset by that?"

"... It _sent_."

His Nonna starts muttering under her breath, probably something to do with how much of an idiot he is, but he can't tear his eyes away from the screen. 

Eleonora's been gone for five and a half months, meaning she has her final exams this week and then, next week, she'll be back. In _Italy_. 

He only knows because he'd heard Eva talking about it to Fede, who dutifully reported back to Edo, and so the _polite_ thing to do would be to wish her well on her exams. He knows that _he'd_ like that if they were to switch positions, but now he's struck with the gut-wrenching realisation that she could very well ask how he knew and he can't say that he has Fede reporting back to him whatever Eva says about her. 

It's bad enough he's convinced his friend to potentially ruin whatever's going on with Eva if she catches on to the fact that he's basically a double agent, but telling the girl he's trying to get a date out of is a complete no-go. 

And he doesn't even have a lie ready to tell her.

"Stop moping," His Nonna says, ushering him towards the kitchen, the scent of cookies not even enough to distract him from his impending doom. 

Seriously, he's having his midlife crisis at the ripe age of eighteen and _no one_ is taking it with the amount of severity he deserves.

They're using his phone to Google cookie decoration ideas when Eleonora responds for the _second_ time in six months. It's a simple ' _thanks x'_ but it effectively restarts his heart and makes his head all foggy.

"Pull it together," His Nonna tuts, but he sees the smile she's failing to hide when she turns around.

"She sent me a kiss!" He calls after her, "That's like two steps away from proposing."

"Well, we all know _you_ don't have the balls to propose."

"Nonna!"

* * *

_Make her the cutest that I've ever seen_

Her hair's so much softer than he'd thought it would be, and now that she's not sending glares his way every other minute he can see just how round her eyes really are. Her eyelashes flutter when he strokes his thumb across her cheek, and there's always a hint of a smile on her mouth when she pulls away from a kiss. She uses something that smells like apples when she showers, and it fills up his car when she accepts a ride to school, but she practically dives away from actually eating the fruit. Her fingers are always light and insistent against his skin, pushing him away when he tries sliding his hand past her shirt but pulling him back in moments later, and when she giggles against his mouth it's quite possibly the best feeling in the entire world. When they're having a lazy day together so swaps her dark lipsticks for flavoured lip balm and his new favourite game is trying to figure out which one she used that day.

Eleonora Sava is so beautiful to him that he genuinely doesn't find anyone else even remotely attractive anymore.

And he knows she's a little insecure - can always tell when it's worse that day because she slides into his car in jeans instead of her favourite plaid shorts - and so he lasers into the little things she does that he likes for when she needs cheering up. 

She can type fifty-six words per minute. Sometimes you can see her appendicitis scar when she's napping in his bed and her shirt rides up and the simple vulnerability of it, the harsh memory behind it, makes Edoardo all fuzzy. She has to stop to pet every single dog they pass on the street, and when there's a baby anywhere close to them she makes faces at it until it laughs, and it's simply unacceptable if they're in the general vicinity of a hopscotch sketch without taking it seriously and hopping through it. She physically can't stop herself from inspecting any plant they pass by, and she needs someone counting up her total when they're plant shopping in case she clears her bank in one sitting. She gets weepy when she's tired and it's quite possibly the most adorable thing Edoardo's ever seen.

She draws circles with her finger on his back when they're lying in bed together, and curls that same hand in a fist around his shirt in her sleep. Her toes are always stupidly cold but her shoulders are always surprisingly warm. She's started wearing lipstick that doesn't smudge as much as others because Edoardo really can't help himself, and the laugh that rings out when he gets a little on his mouth and chin is so worth it. 

She throws her head back pretty much every time she laughs. If someone gets talked over mid-sentence she turns her full body to let them know she's still listening. She starts laughing before she even starts telling a joke and Edoardo never knows what she's saying when it happens but he laughs anyway. She loves to cook but pretty much always forgets the recipe even if she's _just_ read it, and she can't bake to save her life. There's a scar on her neck she can't remember getting that he can never find during the day but shows up perfectly when she's curled around him on his couch like it's a secret just for the two of them.

She phones his Nonna every weekend without fail, and catches lunch with her whenever she can, even if Edoardo's too busy to go with her. She's taught him how to know when the peaches are ripe enough to pick on the tree his mother planted a few months before she passed away, so they don't fall to the floor as they rot anymore. She was the one to take his chain to the shop to get it fixed when it broke one day and Edo felt too broken about it to go himself. She plays with his hair when he mopes that his dad isn't coming back, and she clings onto him tightly when he starts feeling guilty about everything his brother did to her. 

His friends make fun of his hyperawareness around her, but it all proves worth it when Ele's worried about him going to America for college. 

True to his word, he'd taken her with him and the boys on their summer trip. The boys had been all too willing to accommodate her, just happy with the fact that the Andrea-incident is behind everyone, and had actually tried to weasel her into staying for the entire trip, even sulked when she'd declined.

"You sure you want to go home tomorrow?" He mumbles, trying not to sound _too_ pathetic about it. They've just spent five glorious days together, and he knows that Greece has always been on her travel-bucket-list but he and the boys are heading to France tomorrow and the idea of spending their time in Paris - the _city of love,_ for Christ's sake - with _Fede_ instead of his girlfriend is severely depressing.

"You need to spend some time with your boys before you go away."

"I've spent time with them," He winces slightly, knowing that was the few weeks that he'd been adamantly refusing to answer her texts or calls, when he'd been planning to leave Rome altogether (he'd _packed a bag_ ), when he'd been an absolute dick when she needed him the most (he _broke up with her_ , honestly the fact that she even let him get back out that car is a miracle he won't ever understand), "I want to spend time with you before I go, too."

"You'll be in Rome for two weeks," She reminds him, kissing the bare skin of his shoulder and shuffling closer to him under the covers, "Besides, we've left Sana alone with Silvia. It's only going to cause trouble."

He hums, "Stay anyway," and nestles her even closer, sliding his hands down the bare strip of her waist and around to flatten his palms against her spine, "Come to Paris with me."

"I can't," He knows she can't. She's taking a few exams early - that's another added to his list, _she's stupidly smart_ \- and it means a week-long intensive summer course just before she starts her final year - another for the list, she's figured out her timetable to the _minute_ so they can spend as much time together as possible, took online courses so she doesn't even need to leave Edoardo's house the entire time. 

"Promise you won't let Federica into my house until I get back?"

"She won't _actually_ steal your guitar-"

"She _will_ , you've made friends with _criminals_ -"

"You're so dramatic!"

"Well... yeah? Just you wait, you'll realise that's the highlight of your day."

Ele hums, a little non-commitedly, and pulls back to rest her head against her own pillow. Greece has done her some good - her skin a shade darker in a way that the Italian sun can't seem to do, eyes brighter, smile a lot easier to find - but the small frown on her face is definitely not something Edo wants to see until they're at the airport in the morning.

"What's wrong?" He murmurs, tangling their fingers together. She taps out nervous beats with her fingers when she's overthinking, and as exciting as it is when her hands are on his body, he really can't concentrate when she's doing it against his chest. 

Her eyes meet his, softening a little when he smiles at her in the most reassuring way he can. He's talked her through multiple panic attacks, helped her through countless breakdowns when he didn't know it was his brother causing them, but when she gets quiet and withdrawn like she is now he feels a little helpless. He thinks back to that night in his car, the story of when she'd paid the taxi fare by herself and got her appendix removed without anyone there for her, and is startled back into the reality that - when all is said and done - Eleonora Sava will always be the most independent person he knows. 

Eleonora never _needs_ anyone to be there for her, because she always finds a way out herself. Most of the time Edoardo just holds her hand as she bounds across her problems, just acts as her safety net in case she slips in deeper, but the overwhelming feeling of just being there for her is too intoxicating to remember she's been doing this longer than he could even imagine. 

"You're going soon," She says after a beat of silence, "I just... long distance."

"Yeah," He tries to keep his voice as soft as possible, knows that the words don't come that easily with her sometimes, "We can do it."

"I know," She's quick this time, her thumb moving across the back of his hand. He'd grazed his knuckles against a rock at the beach today, and she'd rubbed moisturiser into her hands before bed so it kind of sticks, but the soothing, consistent motion is too relaxing to ask her to stop. 

"I know," She repeats, "It's just... I don't know. America, college..." She trails off with a shrug, brows furrowed and Edoardo kind of hates Fede for the joke he made about American girls this morning.

"Hey," He nudges her, catching her eye and smiling, "I love you."

Her smile's closed-mouthed but there all the same, eyebrows relaxing out of the furrow they had been etched into, "I love you, too."

"Wanna know what I love about you the most?" 

"Edo-"

"That you don't need anyone," He interrupts the eye-roll before it can begin, and watches the slow confusion seep onto her face, "You think you do sometimes - and I love that you always come to me eventually - but you don't really need them. You always _know_ what to do and it's scary knowing how much you don't need me, but I love that you _want_ me. And I want you too. So, sure, sometimes I don't _need_ you, just like you don't need me, but I want you. I want you here and in Rome and I'll want you in America too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She leans in to kiss him first, which is great because he'll never get over the fact that _she does that now_ \- even months down the line. 

"I do need you," She whispers, an hour later when they still can't sleep. They've put the TV on to some American channel so Edoardo can get used to hearing rapid and fluent English, but he'd tuned it out within five minutes. 

"Huh?"

Ele shifts to sit up, crossed legs next to his stomach, and he plans on following but then she's drawing invisible swirling patterns down his chest with her pinky and he doesn't want to ruin her work. 

"Before," She doesn't look him in the eye, just watches her hand as it moves, "You said I don't need anyone, but you're wrong. I _didn't_ need anyone. Before."

"And you do now?"

At this, she looks him in the eye, and she looks so much like she did when she stood in front of him and declared that he must have been a late bloomer holding a history with packing tape; a challenge, a dare, and a warning to not argue back. 

"Yes," It's so confident, no room to argue even if he wanted to, "I need you. I thought I had it all figured out, and that's why you scared me so much at the beginning. Because I _didn't_ know a damn thing, and you just pointed that out without even knowing. And now you... you calm everything down. I have a bad day and I know I just need to be around you and it all slows down, and I can breathe. That's why I'm so afraid of when you're going to leave. Because the phone's great, and video calls are better, but I know I'm going to really need you one day and you're going to be four thousand miles away."

Edoardo's only silent because he really doesn't know what to say. He knows that, with Ele, actions speak louder than words; that she loves him and proves it with everything so does for him, and that she feels safer in showing it than saying it because it comes more naturally for her, but she's just strung together quite literally the _only_ declaration of love he wants to hear from now on. 

"So, yeah," She shrugs, turning her head away to wipe at her tears and his heart _literally_ starts cracking at the wobbly intake of breath she fights in, "I need you. And you're wrong. Mainly you're wrong."

"Wouldn't be the first time," He pokes at the ticklish part of her hip just to get her to smile. "I need you, too. I'm always going to be here for you, so you're wrong for thinking I won't just because I'm in New York."

"You won't be _here_. With me. I... I feel so much better when you're _here_."

"We'll work through it," He sits up, pressing his chest to her back because she still won't turn back around, and finds the curve where her shoulder meets her neck. He feels the tug of her cheeks as she smiles when he places a kiss there, and he presses his matching grin into her skin, "We'll make mistakes for a while and it's going to be so fucking hard, but we'll get there in the end."

There's a beat of silence and then, "It's going to suck without you," He grumbles, feeling a little pathetic that she could throw out those words to him and make it sound so much better. 

She laughs anyway, turning her head to slap a kiss to his cheek. Her face is a little wet from the tears, and when her thumb comes up to rub under his eye he feels that he's been a bit teary as well. 

"It's going to suck without you, too," Ele whispers, resting her forehead against the top of his head and nestling into his curls, "You're leaving me with Fede. _Both_ of them."

He muffles his laugh into her shoulder and drags them down until she's laying on top of him, "Send them to America every other weekend."

"Like children of divorce?" She teases, linking their legs together and knocking her _freezing_ toes into his shins.

"Not even _talking_ about marriage and yet, here you are, already planning our divorce," He teases right back, squeezing her waist as she snorts, "Unbelieve, Sava."

"I just _can't_ look at my husband every day knowing his name is _Eduardo_ -"

Fede grumbles the next morning that Ele was laughing too loud when Edoardo tackled her into the mattress and kept her pinned there as he tickled her, but he's still a little too high on the fact that _she needs him_ to care. 

* * *

_Give her two lips like roses and clover_

Edoardo has a love-hate relationship with airports.

He's not particularly bothered when it comes to flying - unlike Nicco who needs a sleeping pill just to consider boarding - but he hates the security checkpoint.

Because _that's_ where he has to say goodbye to Ele when she leaves for Italy and he leaves for Paris. And _that's_ where he has to say goodbye to Ele when he's leaving for New York. Except... he also kind of loves it because Ele has no quims about making out with him there despite how _very_ public it is. She has to stand on her tiptoes to kiss him properly, and she takes control of it but _he_ has to pull away first (which he does hate), but it never fails to make his cheeks flush until he's boarded the plane. The very special memory also tends to last the entire semester before he gets back again, which definitely helps when he's homesick.

But he _loves_ the arrivals gate. Like he _loves_ the arrivals gate.

He has two months until he graduates, which just means two glorious months of complete freedom in Rome with his friends and his girlfriend, and the arrivals gate is right insight. Edoardo didn't manage to come back for Spring Break like he wanted to, and he blames the mountain of textbooks he had to wade through before his finals, but he's finished them all now and he has generally never been happier to see the New York skyline disappear. 

It's in the middle of the day, and Ele should definitely be in her own college class right now, but she'd texted him a selfie of herself and Fede sitting by arrivals with Burger King crowns proudly on their heads, and there are butterflies in his stomach knowing that she's ditched her class just to come pick him up. He'd planned around her not being there, which was honestly just sitting on the hood of his car outside her lecture hall until she was done, but this is much better. 

He's too busy trying to look for her to notice that she's that blur heading right for him, and she knocks the breath out of his lungs but then she's wrapped her legs around his hips and buried her nose into his shoulder and he's too busy dropping his bags and wrapping her up tighter against him to care. 

"You're not going again," She's muttering, kissing his neck with fumbling presses of her mouth to his skin, "I don't care. You're not going. You said that was the last time and you're not ever going again."

"I have to graduate," He smiles, remembers that he used to only ever smirk her and he honestly can't remember the last time he did, "You coming with me?"

"Stupid question," She pulls her head back and her eyes look greener than when he left, "I thought Cornell was for smart people?"

"Who helped you pass Latin?"

"Eduardo, what a smart boy he was-"

"Shut it," He grins, leaning forward to kiss her and sighing once she leans into him. 

He may love the security check-in because of the harsh, dizzying kisses she leaves him with, but he loves arrivals for the slow, almost non-moving press of her mouth to his that he gets even more.

"I missed you," She whispers, unhooking her ankles from behind his back and dropping back to her feet. It just seems like second-nature when he grabs his duffel bag from the floor and she starts wheeling his suitcase behind them, arms hooked around each other, but it's the _last time_ they'll do this habit and that feels ten times better than the fact they stuck it out this long to form it in the first place.

"Missed you too," He whispers against her temple, squeezing her closer before dropping his arm from her to hug Fede too, who really only still comes to the airport because he likes the Burger King here.

Ele insists on sitting in the back on the drive to Edo's place, but only so she can make a sizeable dent in her textbook for the class she's currently missing, but she periodically meets his eyes in the rearview mirror and so Edo swallows down the fact that he'd wanted to hold her hand whilst he drove. He drops Fede off home and complains about feeling like a taxi when Ele refuses to move to the front, but then she gets her mouth back on him as soon as they're in his front door and he's preoccupied again.

She giggles happily against his lips when he picks her up, her legs around his hips again, and laughs even louder when he bumps them into a corner, but sighs once he gets her in his bed. 

"I missed you," He says again because he _did_ and he doesn't really need to say it anymore but he wants her to know that six months away drove him crazy, "Don't know how we handled six months when you were in Manchester."

She snorts, rolling her eyes as she starts unbuttoning his shirt and he gets to work unbuttoning hers, "You were just as pathetic as you were that time, but this time I actually responded."

"You so liked it," He teases, pushing their chests together. Sure, having sex with her is definitely high up on his priorities list, but it can wait a few minutes as he gets his hands in her hair and tries to show just how crazy he's been wanting to be around her since he left.

"I muted my notifications until I was doing exams," She whispers, a little breathless which goes straight to his head, "Needed the distraction."

"I'm a distraction?" He grins, kissing down her stomach slowly, so stupidly happy at the fact that they don't need to rush this.

"You're so full of yourself," Ele mutters, kicking lightly as his thigh and tugging him back up by the hair. 

She's put lipstick on, one that smudges and she looks thoroughly dazed once he notices, but it throws him back to their first kiss in the rain all those years ago and he surges forward for another one. They've not kissed in six months, she's gotten used to the sticky kind of lipstick that a gust of wind could properly knock out of place, and he feels it against his mouth and his chin but he really doesn't care. 

There's a desperate need to know what colour it is, and he's proud of himself for ignoring the whine she lets out when he pulls away, smoothing her hair away from her face. 

"Edo," She whines again, in a way that he's _absolutely_ going to make of her for later, but it comes from pinky-red lips and he's a little distracted right now. He can see the light shade of her natural lips peeking through at the fullest part of her bottom lip, but then she sinks her teeth into it and that distracts him even more. 

"I missed you," He whispers, _again_ , "Fuck, I missed you. Never again."

"That's my idea, you can't steal it."

"Just did," He tugs her bottom lip away from her teeth with his thumb and gives her a soft press of their mouths, "Honestly, should have gone to Rome. Why did you let me go to America?"

"Because I'm not the boss of you."

"You definitely are."

"You're right," She grins at him, looping her arms around his neck and tugging at his curls once more, "I am the boss of you. Kiss me."

And, honestly, he's way to happy with the command to even think about arguing. 


End file.
